Warren Pick '78 works "to have a positive impact on other
people and on my children."

There were times, says Warren Pick ’78, when it was quieter than you might expect amidst the rubble. "It was loud and you’d hear the machines, the digging, and of course lots of people talking to each other," he says, "but when [the rescuers] called for quiet, when they were listening [for any signs of life], you could hear your heart beat."

Pick, who has won many Emmy Awards for producing and directing sports programming, is also a firefighter with the Village of Bedford Volunteer Fire Department. He and his fellow volunteers worked on a bucket brigade at the former site of the World Trade Center. He arrived two days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history laid waste to a pair of the tallest buildings in the world.

"You could smell the cement dust in the air. The air was thick and choking," Pick says. "It made your throat sore, your mouth dry, and your eyes burn." It didn’t escape him that as the firefighters passed buckets down the row, they were literally sifting through the remnants of people’s lives. "Everybody there had this apprehension: Are we going to find someone? Or a body? Or a body part?" During Pick’s shift on the line, however, none of the above was uncovered.

Pick has been a volunteer firefighter for a little over a year. He says he was just doing his small part. "I was there about four hours. That’s inconsequential," he says, compared to emergency workers who had been on the scene of the terrorist attack for days straight.

"What I was struck by," he continues, "were the faces of people there. I didn’t see fear, panic, sadness. What I saw was determination, pride, and just a sense of wanting to help. I got that sense of national pride, that groundswell feeling that all Americans are feeling, just trying to do the right thing."

If anything, the whole experience made him "want to hug my kids a little tighter. It makes you realize there’s more to life than sitting around and counting your money."

But Pick already knew that. About a year before the September terrorist attacks, he began, as he puts it, "to want to have a positive impact on other people and on my children." His children --- Chelsea, 8, and Zachary, 5 --- "are at an age," he says, "when I want to be a role model for them." So he joined the fire department, and he recently completed the first stage of training to be an emergency medical technician. And last winter he also became a certified member of the National Ski Patrol, helping to keep skiers safe on Belleayre Mountain in the Catskills, not far from his home. He had always been an avid skier, but this is taking his pastime to a new level. "I guess this is how I’m handling my midlife crisis," he laughs.

Last year Pick’s company, WAVE (Warren’s Audio Visual Endeavors) Entertainment, produced a documentary that led to further expansion of his volunteerism. Let Me Be Brave chronicled the New York City Metro games of the Special Olympics. Following that endeavor, which WAVE produced for the games for free, he was asked to join the board of directors of SONY, the New York State governing body of the games.

WAVE Entertainment, which primarily produces sports coverage for television networks, depends on advertising revenues, which have fallen sharply in the past year. Pick says the business, at which he has won 10 of his 11 Emmys, is likely to feel the effects of the terrorist attacks in the short term, with the weakening of an already soft economy.

But Pick remains optimistic. "History tells us that even in bad economies, people eat, drink, take medication, and need to be entertained," he says. He’s also optimistic about the world in which his children will grow up. "I truly believe that in the long run the goodness of the human spirit will prevail, and the world they inherit will be a better place than it is today," he says.

Pick recalls walking away from ground zero after his shift on the bucket brigade. Dust and smoke still hung heavily in the air, even 20 blocks north of the site. "As we were walking, a north wind was blowing and it cleared a little bit. I saw stars. I think that it was a bright spot; I felt, ‘We’re still here, I’m still here, life does go on.’ "

--- Dan Higgins

Photo: Michael Rieger/FEMA News Photo